It can be the hardest thing to imagine, but try it. Every decision you have to make is for something greater than yourself, you live to serve and protect every member of your species, to fight off constant threats that present themselves at any and all moments, some of which have never been seen by the human race before.
This is but a fraction of what Master Chief Petty Officer John 117 has encountered in all his time on active duty. The Master Chief is a shining symbol of humanity, the pinnacle of all our military strategy and training. Sierra 117 has been entered time and time again into our history books as one of the human races most selfless individuals due to his fast acting and selfless decisions.
(The greatest of hero of humanity? Master Chief Petty Officer John 117)
This begs the question of how he was recruited. Is there a back story that makes John inspire other soldiers? How can we find more people like John to train entire armies of SPARTANS?
Benjamin Giraud, a freelance reporter who had worked with UNSC (United Nations Space Command) and ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) had been commissioned by the latter to write a promotional piece on the Chief. Much to ONI’s dislike Ben returned to his reporter instincts and found leads on his own outside of their pre-approved sources; the outcome is a well-documented experience known as #HUNTtheTRUTH and is still for everyone to hear. Ben found that not all John’s documents were true, some of the stories from ONI’s sources were not making sense, and some contradicted facts.
Ben tugged the strings of a military story that is too horrible to consider, a question nobody dared speak about in polite company…. or any company at all. ONI kept the lid shut on the recruitment of SPARTANS prior to their new SPARTAN IV’s for a reason, and if you did not already know then prepare to have your eyes opened.
Imagine you live in the outer colonies of human civilisation; you are so far away from Earth that you are nothing but a long forgotten problem, or at least you should be. You cannot live the life that you want because some planet on the other end of space is tying everyone down with bureaucracy, these bodies being the UNSC and their Colonial Administration Authority. You are not allowed to break away and become your own separate civilisation; you have to remain under Earth’s watch because you were born as a human being.
(The devastation felt by the Insurrection)
Peaceful protests and negotiations were futile and fell upon deaf ears, and since we are all human beings…. fighting was inevitable.
From the year 2494 until 2537, this 43 year stretch saw the civil war of humanity that existed on a galactic scale. The UNSC military body was fighting their on species on the outer colonies because they wanted basic human freedom. 30 years into the insurrection had caused a death toll of millions, was the fighting really justifying humanities struggle for freedom? In a way it was, humans cannot help but pick out a fight; it is in our being to channel anger and aggression into the need for fighting. When the UNSC pushed with their might, the rebels learned to adapt and counteract, their lives away from Earth had hardened them and taught them to make do with what they had and could find.
The rebels gained strength and resolve, sometimes the UNSC found it easier to retreat and let Rebels capture planets rather than combat guerrilla tactics. In the end the value of the colonies were too great for Earth to let them remain in rebel’s control.
The greatest minds of the UNSC came up with a new breed of soldier to combat the growing rebellion in the outer colonies. The Spartan Project was created (Dr Catharine Halsey at the helm); these would be soldiers who were genetically augmented to combat insurgent soldiers. The Spartan Project was actually born from the dying embers of the ORION Project which had been deactivated. SPARTANS were to be titled after the Greek soldiers of legend; these warriors were noted for their strength and fighting ability. The new SPARTANS would be tall imposing figures who could think and act quicker than a normal human being; they could run faster, jump higher, notice target quicker and fight longer than any average soldier.
This was the dream answer to the question of how to fight rebels on their own ground, the UNSC and ONI would create their very own super soldiers. Best of all they would “recruit” candidates from the colonies that they would be attacking.
(Dr Catherine Halsey)
Potential candidates would be noted and scouted, and then if a candidate seemed reasonable then a DNA sample would be taken in a covert manner. The DNA sample would be used in the process of Flash Cloning to create a clone of the potential target. A Flash Clone will grow and develop 100 times faster than a natural born human being; this is by not a perfect method of cloning and is considered highly illegal. What is legality in the eyes of the government during war time though? It is acceptable to bend and brakes the rules if you can justify it for the greater good, this is the view our caring and sharing friends at ONI have.
The potential candidates would then be removed from their everyday lives, the Flash Clone would then be inserted into the targets life and nobody would be any the wiser. The child would be a little off, maybe not act the exact same as its original counterpart and eventually their bodies would fail. At the same time the original child would be abducted from the life they know and taken away to an off the books military facility to be locked away in secret.
The UNSC would take children and replace them with a clone, created against its own. The only purpose for these artificial beings would be to fall ill and die, leaving a family and loved ones mourning the loss of a being who was never technically their child. This process was not done once, but countless times. The amount of time and effort they put into their “recruitment” of the outer colonies can easily be dwarfed by the months and years of grief they caused the human race across the galaxy.
John 117, he was one of these cases. Ben Giraud found records of Johns “death” at the age of 6, then later found friends of John who remembered him falling ill and dying. It did not stop there, the horrifying truth that John was not the only child that had been abducted, but rather one of countless children that had been used for this sickening experiment. The reason for this was for the children to be turned into super soldiers to fight the very rebel colonies they were born and raised in.
This is when the UNSC and ONI crossed the line, what they done was nothing short of child abduction and slavery. The children were then augmented from a very young age, 12 years old maybe even earlier. Their bodies were genetically changed to grow bigger, their brains would be augmented and brainwashed.
The more terrifying thing about this was that it was not a 100% success rate. Who knows how many failures the military had before they got the formula right?
(Human augmentation for the SPARTAN program)
When you put a SPARTAN soldier in their signature MJOLNIR power armour, then you have a sight and a force that you instantly know as a force to be reckoned with. The UNSC finally had their “ace in the hole” for their war on the insurgents. These children who only dreamed of a life of freedom, who only wished that they could live in piece were now bought and paid for lap dogs of the military. Their lives would be nothing more than that of servitude and fighting.
Something happened next, something unexpected to anyone. We were certainly not alone in the grand scheme of things; we were not the ruling military body of all existence. Something with bigger guns, greater numbers and more terrifying….. something completely unknown.
The covenant had made itself known to humanity, and when something unknown appears humanity groups together to fight. This is not due to patriotism, I believe it is because we do not want some new beings coming in and killing people that we have been fighting for half a century.
(The selfless visage of unquestioning loyalty)
Suddenly when an unstoppable alien force turned up on the fringes of out occupied space we were not ready, but we had something that would be out best shot. The Spartans proved and excellent manner of repelling alien forces to a certain degree. They quickly became the hero’s we needed them to be, our beacon of hope that this was a fight we could go onto win.
Among the SPARTAN ranks was John, the greatest of all the soldiers than humanity had to offer. If we look at John now we are supposed to see honour, glory, victory, the best of humanity. That is not what I see, I see something very different and it is something I feel ashamed of every time I see his effigy.
I look at the Master Chief and see someone who has not lived, someone who has lived to serve and never wanted anything of their own, a person who is expected to fight so none of us have to any more.
The greatest of humanity’s heros was meant to be our greatest weapon to fight a civil war, John 117 is a man who was not only stripped of a childhood; he was stripped of free will and a life of his own.
Maybe it is true what the UNSC say “SPARTANS never die”; this could just be because a SPARTAN has never had a life to call their own to live?
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